When my dipole used to be strung between trees, I found the best solution
was to the wind damage problem was to use a heavy duty wire (#8 copperweld)
and a chain of 5 strain insulators to make each end insulator and the middle
insulator, and to stretch the dipole as tightly as I could pull it. I never
had an insulator or the wire to break using this system. Earlier attempts,
using pulleys and weights, springs, etc resulted in having to re-errect the
dipole after each major windstorm.
One thing I recall doing, which was poor practice, was to attach the wire to
the tree by simply looping it around the tree trunk or a limb. The tree
would eventually grow completely over the wire loop, permanently embedding
it into the tree. I never had a tree or a limb to die using this method,
but according to an article in QST several years ago this damages the tree
and a better solution is to drill a hole through the body of the tree and
attach the wire using an eye-bolt fixed in place with a nut and washer. For
lighter duty applications, a screw-in eye bolt would do.
Don k4kyv
_______________________________________________________________
This message was typed using the DVORAK keyboard layout.
http://www.mwbrooks.com/dvorak/
http://gigliwood.com/abcd/
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|